


Sun Done Run Out Of Rays

by crocs



Category: Cloak & Dagger (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s01e10 Colony Collapse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 22:36:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15694731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocs/pseuds/crocs
Summary: Her voice came out raw, but strong. "My name's Tandy, and I'm an addict.""Hi, Tandy," voiced the rest of the circle with differing levels of enthusiasm.





	Sun Done Run Out Of Rays

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brodiew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brodiew/gifts).



> Written as part of a prompt/fic trade with **brodiew**. Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> ( **The Prompt** : _If it's up your alley, I'd like to see Tandy show some vulnerability; perhaps acknowledge her 'regression' (stealing hopes) and repent._ )

Tandy wiped her wet hands on her jeans again and cursed.

That mud wasn't coming off, no matter how hard she tried. Nor the blood that'd been on them for the past eight years, either.

Though on some days she thought that she'd imagined most of it, most of what she'd done, the red on Tandy's hands persisted. It was a wonder no-one had caught her at it. Then again, Tandy had always been good at pointing the finger at others. A head tilt here, a pointed look there… Tandy knew just how to imply, and press sore areas, and blame others.

That didn't mean she liked to do so. Maybe back then, but not now. Not now that she had Ty, had Mina, had her Mom to back come home to.

_But when she'd lost all of that…_

She blinked at the reflection in the dirty restroom mirror. Bags hung under her eyes, almost mocking her as she did so. They were joined by a mostly healed black eye, earned in a backstreet fight after all of the bars had closed. She felt a migraine coming on.

Well. Presentability wasn't _everything_.

Giving up, Tandy stuffed her hands into her hoodie pockets and shouldered the dingy bathroom door open. It swung open with much complaint, shrieking while Tandy barged through.

She had no reason to rush. In fact, Tandy was early for once.

She entered the community center corridor, lit by blinking fluorescent lights lining the ceiling. An older woman nodded at her, shushing a bawling baby, as Tandy shuffled towards one of the rooms. She didn’t nod back.

In the room, there was a small circle of unfolded chairs faced inwards. Most of them were empty, save for a young guy fiddling with a Rubik's Cube and another girl, around Tandy's age. Tandy didn’t nod at them either.

Feet slapping against the linoleum floor, she made her way to an empty chair and slumped down in one of them. It was mildly uncomfortable, but she stayed quiet. She occupied herself instead with watching the second hand flit around the askew clock hung dead in front of her.

One by one, like a dripping tap, people filed in to the room. Several of them stared at their feet as they walked in. Like Tandy, they each sat down in an empty chair and sat in silence. Like Tandy, they all had a reason to be here.

Soon, the circle was filled. Twelve people, in total, sat in complete silence, reflecting as the lights above buzzed and blinked. The windows surrounding them were flanked by old lavender curtains, bleached by time. The building was new, a sprawling, concrete monstrosity near the outskirts. The quality of care wasn't, Tandy reflected.

"Would anyone like to start?" An assertive voice sounded from near to her right. The leader of the group.

Tandy swallowed, closed her eyes, and breathed in.

Her voice came out raw, but strong. "My name's Tandy, and I'm an addict."

"Hi, Tandy," voiced the rest of the circle with differing levels of enthusiasm.

"When I was younger…" she trailed off and shook her head. "For a long time, I was addicted to taking things. Stuff that wasn't mine, you know? I'd decide that, for whatever arbitrary reason, I’d steal from a person that didn't deserve what they had.

"I even went as far as trying to — I don't know, _seduce_ them? That sounds terrible, I know. But I was good at it. And for a long time, I thought it was the only thing I was good at."

She looked up, voice suddenly lost in her throat. The Rubik's Cube Guy nodded encouragingly.

"And then I met a guy," Tandy continued. Some of the group laughed, and she smiled along. "I know, I know. Cheesy. But together we were _explosive_. And he — my dad, um, he died when I was little — my friend motivated me to get better and to find out what really happened to my dad. Life was good for a while.

"And then it all went to hell in a handbasket. I found out what really happened to my dad, and I found out that he wasn't exactly who I’d built him up to be all these years. It broke me, y'know? My friend tried to talk about it with me, but I — he caught me falling back into an old bad routine of mine and we fought. I was a complete and utter bitch to him. So I lost _that_ support."

Tandy began to play with the loose threads fraying at the end of her hoodie. "In most classical stories, when things go pear-shaped, the protagonist regresses, you know? And I guess that in the story of my life I regressed too.

"I fell back into my addiction. I started to steal —"

 _— Hopes_ _—_

"— Things I really shouldn't have messed with." Tandy sighed. "It felt good while I did it, but, of course, it came to bite me in the ass. I tried to make up for it. I've no idea if I actually have."

She shrugged for effect. "My friend and I made up, in probably the most spectacular way possible, and I'm really glad I have him to lean on again. And that he has me. Support system. Important. But really…

"…But really, I'm scared out of my wits. I've no idea whether I’ll regress again. I have the personality for it, at least. I put up this Teflon front, because I want to be like that. Untouchable. Firm. Assertive." The edges of her lips curled up. "I hope I can be like that without faking it someday."

The group sat in heavy silence for a while, drinking in her words.

"Thank you, Tandy, for sharing that," the group leader said as Tandy folded her arms, finished. "Does anyone else want to talk tonight?"

Rubik's Cube Guy raised a tentative hand.

Tandy sat back as she listened to the rest of her group's stories, a final weight lifted off her shoulders.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _Graves_ by Whiskey Shivers.


End file.
